2005-02-22
City of Beverly, Massachusetts
Public Meeting Minutes
Board:
Library Trustees
Subcommittee:
Date:
Tuesday, February 22, 2005 7:00 P.M.
Place:
Beverly Public Library
Board members present:
Kathleen McMahon, Neil Olson, Joanne Panunzio, Helga Senko, and
John Young
Board members absent:
Lindsay Diehl, Todd Balf, Kevin O’Reilly
Others present:
Thomas Scully, Anna Langstaff, Alyse Gause
Recorder:
Anna Langstaff
John Young presided.
Neil Olson made the motion, seconded by Joanne Panunzio, to accept the minutes of January 25,
2005 as read. Motion passed.
Election of Officers
Neil Olson made the motion, seconded by John Young, to nominate Lindsay Diehl as secretary.
There were no other nominations. Motion passed.
Neil Olson made the motion, seconded by Helga Senko, to nominate John Young as Chair. There
were no other nominations. Motion passed.
John Young made the following committee assignments:
Administration: Todd Balf (Chair), Helga Senko, Joanne Panunzio, Kevin O’Reilly, Alyse Gause
Finance: Kathleen McMahon (Chair), Kevin O’Reilly, Neil Olson, Lindsay Diehl, Alyse Gause
Personnel: Joanne Panunzio (Chair), Lindsay Diehl, Neil Olson, Todd Balf, Helga Senko
Long Range Planning: Lindsay Diehl (Chair), Todd Balf, Alyse Gause, Kathleen McMahon, Neil
Olson, Kevin O’Reilly, Joanne Panunzio, Helga Senko, John Young
Public Presentation
None
Committee Reports
Personnel: Director evaluations will be mailed out soon.
Administration: No report.
Finance: No report.
Long Range Planning: No report.
Report of the Library Director
1) Director’s report (on file with these minutes) was distributed and discussed. 2) FY2006
Budget: Tom Scully reviewed proposed FY2006 budget. Things to note: 53 week paycheck
period in FY2006, funding for full-time reference librarian, funding for Sunday hours. Once the
library receives the $100,000 supplemental budget, additional money for heating and ventilation
system repair and computer hardware will be funded out of the current fiscal year.
Communications
1) Legislative Breakfast: Friday, March 4, 2005 8am-9am Reading Public Library.
Unfinished Business
1) Kay Fanning, longtime library trustee, passed away in February.
New Business
1) Alyse Gause: John Young welcomed new library trustee, Alyse Gause. 2) Photograph of Kay
Fanning: Neil Olson asked whether a photograph of Kay Fanning could be put up on the wall in
the Fogg Room.
The next regular meeting of the Board will be Tuesday, March 22, 2005 at 7:00 P.M. at the Main
Library.
Finance Committee will meet Tuesday, March 8 at 9:00 A.M. at the Main Library.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:10 P.M.
LIBRARY DIRECTOR’S REPORT
February 22, 2005
Library Certification
- All of the communities that have chosen not to loan materials to Beverly
residents have commenced denying borrowing privileges, except for Danvers which will begin
March 1. This is a new experience for everyone involved, so there have been some glitches
and confusion, but this will get sorted out.
We have $42,000 in money pledged to help with the $100,000 supplemental budget for this
year. Our goal is to raise $50,000.
Beverly Farms Branch Library
- The wooden shelving for the Children’s Room and behind the
Circulation Desk is being installed. We expect most of the remaining furniture within the next
2 weeks. The Reading Room chandeliers are due back in March. As soon as the Friends of
the Library receive the bequest from the estate of Louisa Conrad, and the construction season
begins, we will construct the sidewalk out to Hale Street, restore the gate, install the outside
lighting and begin the landscaping.
Circulation
- Circulation has increased in the month of January approximately 30% over last January.
We have begun loaning music CDs and movie DVDs. Circulation has been heavy with almost
1000 items loaned in the first 4 weeks. We have almost 300 DVDs and there has rarely been
more than a half dozen in at any given time.
Budget
- I have had to make nearly a dozen transfers of funds from one line item to another in the
budget to meet unexpected expenses. Currently, the Part Time Staff account will run out of
funds the first week in June. I hope that the $100,000 supplemental budget will restore this
money.
Staff
- We have hired a new part time reference librarian, Ewa Jankowska, to replace the hours
worked by Dean Baumeister, who left in December. Ewa has a Masters Degree in Library
Science and currently works at the Saugus Public Library. We formerly had 5 part time
reference librarians, we now have 2. Jocelyn Tavares, the Assistant Adult Services Librarian
is expecting in June and will be going out on maternity leave at that time. Among other
duties, Jocelyn runs our Monday Morning lecture series and does all of our publication
relations work.
Security Issues
- We are again experiencing some problems with library patrons. Anna and I have
been discussing these people with the police. One of the patrons was arrested by the police
in library last week on outstanding warrants.